The detection system will be released as an optional extra. Toyota hopes that it can be installed on all car models once manufacturing prices have dropped.

New cars equipped in the system will not start if driving wheel sweat sensors pick up a high level of alcohol in the driver's bloodstream.The Toyota system will also be able to detect if a driver is driving abnormally, along with a camera that is used to determine whether or not the driver has pupils that are dilated -- a sign that the driver may have had too much to drink.If the system picks up any of the signals, the car will slow down and come to a complete stop.

Other car manufacturers have also been experimenting with systems that aim at detecting whether or not a driver is sober enough to drive safely. In the United States, for example, alcohol ignition-interlocks are being used for drunk drivers with prior offenses.

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People who try to force their morality onto me are also idiots. I don't believe in drunk driving and think it should be cracked down upon, but people like you have made it a joke. Harsher penelties? What can be harsher then possibly going to jail and 10,000+ in fines? At least that's what people tend to get around here. It's also people like you who made the legal limit .08. .08 . Some people can get to that after one or two beers, or a shot, or one and a half mixed drinks. Have you ever known anyone who gets drunk after a beer or two? I sure haven't, but I would be about legally drunk if I drank a couple, seeing as I weigh 165lbs. So something notably stupid or foolish are the ridiculous limits in place today and the already harsh penelties for someone who may just be at .08 or .09. Now, if they are, say, at .15 or something, then yes, they should get into a lot of trouble. But don't pretend forcing people to wear seat belts or to keep lowering the legal limit will help anything, because I still see auto deaths as the #1 killer of younger people in the US even after all of this forced morality/forced safety has been put into place.

Even though arrogant, invincible people (read 20 somethings and most likely yourself) think they can drive perfectly fine after a couple of drinks, chances are they can't. Haven't you watched Dateline or any other in-depth news show more then once? Did you fall asleep in drivers ed?

.08 .08 !! OH THE HORROR. .08 appears HIGHER then most first world countries from a casual glance. The median seems to be .05. Australia is particularly nice. Licensed regular drivers get .05. Professionals, unlicensed drivers, probationary drivers and permits get mostly a 0% limit. No detectable alcohol. A large number of countries have a 0% limit all together. I say kudos to them!

And finally you talk about the numbers killed. You obviously didn't even take a cursory glance at the available data since not only have traffic fatalties fallen since 1980, the percent related to alcohol had fallen from 60% to 39%. Thats progress, yet still not nearly enough.

Just be glad this isn't a monarchy. If I were king your license would be revoked just for posting this.

You're right, no will disagree that drunk driving is idiotic. Nonetheless, as others have noted, plenty of responsible people have lapses of judgment. Draconian laws is one way to destroy the lives of such people (a list to which I think we can ad GWB)--and this is not much of an exaggeration, as the inability to get any license for the rest of one's life could easily remove 4/5ths of all opportunities for employment and advancement. Of course the other option is the introduction of rather more humane methods (like the technology this article mentions) of dealing with the problem.

I'd vote for the later method, and suspect the majority of americans would as well. This doesn't in any way contradict popular support for lowering of the legal limit, as that has nothing at all to do with instituting draconian punishments, and everything to do with reducing unsafe behavior in an effective and humane way.